


White

by SallyK



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Narukami Arashi, Fluff and Angst, set during starfest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-03 06:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17279078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SallyK/pseuds/SallyK
Summary: December has a bittersweet aftertaste.





	White

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone!  
> Since it was Naru Week again, I wanted to contribute with another story! This was supposed for day 7 (free), but I'm a little bit late because family reunions and all that stuff.  
> Huge thanks to **Gabs** for taking a look at this.
> 
> I hope you like it~~!

December is definitely beautiful, Arashi thinks, with all the lights, gifts and celebrations. Laughter in the air, warm foods in your belly. Everything glitters and sparkles, like out from a fairytale. Business are specially meticulous decorating their window displays, and there are so many new items for all the special dates in the month that Arashi spends more time than usual window-shopping, staring at velvet, silk chiffon, pearl and rhinestones in awe. It would be nice, she says to herself, to welcome the new year wearing one of the dresses she longingly looks at from the other side of the glass. A pink empire gown, or perhaps an even fancier ball gown, followed by a rented kimono for the first visit to the temple. But in the end she just sighs and keeps walking without even looking at the price tag.

December is also a busy time for idols. They are called for gigs at different stores, fighting to win over potential customers’ attention during Christmas’ season by all means. They also have official concerts, like Starfest, and on top of that she has to add the festive photoshoots for her modelling work. It always amazes her how many different perfumes come out just for this month alone.

Arashi doesn’t mind busy.

Busy is good. It helps her not to think about ugly things, about the sad parts of the sparkly fairytale.

Yes, December is pretty, like the picture on a postcard. Full of happiness and joy. But Arashi’s heart feels heavy when the first snowflakes start to flutter. There’s a bittersweet aftertaste in her mouth when everything is slowly covered in white and she sees kids shouting and playing happily, because she can only think of how the outline of the cenotaph is even sharper amidst the snow, the dark stone unmissable in that clarity.

It’s nice, in a way, that nature seems to wear such a sorrowful colour to help her mourn and remember the dead. She feels less alone, looking at a certain name and almost drowning in assorted memories, regrets, and “what if”s. 

She feels less alone, again, when Leo talks to her.

It’s funny, because she knows Knight’s eccentric king isn’t her type. She even says so to his face. But her heart warms up a little with his words nevertheless, and the set of earrings they share for Starfest feels heavy on her ear in a good way. A comforting hand over her cheek, a shoulder she knows she can cry on if she wants to.

King and queen sing, dance and perform together, and even if they don’t win it doesn’t matter that much to her. She leaves the stage tired but content.

Yumenosaki grounds are still covered in snow, covered in that mournful colour, when everything is over and Arashi goes outside in her casual outfit. The sadness the performance has managed to keep at bay washes over her again; there’s a knot in her throat. She can’t see the cenotaph from here, but she feels its presence anyways and she worries at her lip, paralyzed. 

Someone taps at her shoulder and Leo’s there, green eyes gleaming with something she can’t quite define.

“You’re sad again, Naru.” He doesn’t sound like he’s scolding her, but he’s far from his cheerful self too.

“Don’t worry. I’m just tired,” she fakes a smile to top her performance.

Arashi realizes then she hasn’t taken the earring off alongside the rest of the ensemble so she quickly tries to fix that, but Leo’s hand stop her.

“Keep it. As a charm.”

“But…”

“Nope! No buts! It’s an order from your leader, okay? See?” He points at his ear, where his own earring is still dangling. “I won’t take off mine either, so at least today you won’t feel alone when you go back home on your own. Oh! Or I could go with you!” His whole face lights up, as if he has discovered an universal truth.

“Are you asking me for a date?” Arashi says, half jokingly.

Despite herself, she’s smiling. Leo’s bubbliness and his never-ending string of words are the best to drown the ugly thoughts in her head.

“Ha! You said I wasn’t your type, I haven’t forgotten, you know. But you can call it a date if that makes you happy!”

Arashi has barely nodded in agreement when Leo grabs her hand and leads her out of Yumenosaki and far from the cenotaph, even when he doesn’t know where to go and isn’t the best at directions in the first place.

Arashi doesn’t mind.

She doesn’t mind either when they have to stop twice because Leo feels inspired and rescues random pieces of paper from his pockets to start writing vigorously in the middle of the street or the underground.

And she smiles, not only because his energy is contagious but also because the half ripped pages are white and it reminds her that white doesn’t have to be a sad colour. It can also mean a new beginning.

December keeps being a sorrowful time, but when Leo says goodbye to her with a gracious kiss in the knuckles and heads off his own home, Arashi’s heart is mostly filled up with good emotions, some of which she doesn’t know how to even call.

She enters the house, absentmindedly fiddling with the earring, and decides she’s definitely going to keep it.  


End file.
